Columnist.
Service members regularly tell me that one of the biggest challenges facing them today are the restrictions on religious expression that have become widespread in the military. Just yesterday I was speaking with a family member of a military officer who said the officer has to be very careful that none of their emails include any reference to God or Jesus Christ for fear of reprimand. You'll recall last month, the [U.S. Air Force threatened Master Sgt. Philip Monk](http://www.frc.org/alert/protect-sergeant-phillip-monk-from-air-force-court-martial) with court martial after he refused his lesbian commanders' demand that he endorse same-sex "marriage." Dozens of such religious liberty infringements are documented in FRC's new report [A Clear and Present Danger: The Threat to Religious Liberty in the Military](http://www.frc.org/clearpresentdanger).
ObamaCare enrollment problems continue into day three of the partial government shutdown, as online error messages, delays, and other "glitches" persist. Congressman [Mike Pompeo (R-Kans.) explained](http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r113:1:./temp/~r113YknQ1h:e18360:) on the House floor how he tried to enroll online for ObamaCare himself, but after encountering web errors, finally resorted to calling the hotline. After waiting an hour and forty minutes, he got through to a "young lady who told me she was from Louisiana. She said, 'Why did you call?' I said, 'I'm calling to comply with the Federal law.' She said, 'I'm not going to be able to help you with that today. My system is down, too.'" Congressman Pompeo continued, "I asked her how long she'd been working on this.' She said, 'Quite a while.'" And, "quite a while" is how long this shutdown appears likely to continue.
ObamaCare isn't connecting with voters -- and Tuesday, it just plain wasn't connecting with anything! System failures, network crashes, and error messages seemed to multiply from one state exchange to the next, ruining the rollout of what was supposed to be the answer to America's health care prayers. Despite three years to work out the kinks, the dawn of the health care law was one of the President's biggest embarrassments yet, as reporters [raced to cover](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/09/30/obamacare-glitch-watch-delay-in-launch-spanish-language-sites/) one malfunction to the next. When MSNBC's Mara Schiavocampo tried to sign up for ObamaCare on live TV -- and couldn't -- even she [was frustrated](http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/01/msnbc-anchor-quits-obamacare-sign-up-dem). "If I were signing up for myself, this is where my patience would be exhausted."
For the first time in 17 years, the federal government has partially shut down. House Republicans offered the Senate three different compromises on ObamaCare, only to be rebuffed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) three times. After attempting to defund ObamaCare and fund the government, Republicans passed a bill Sunday morning to fund the government and delay ObamaCare, only to be rejected again.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) may be asleep, but his chamber is anything but. While the GOP's ironman catches a few winks after his 21-hour ObamaCare beat down, the rest of his colleagues are buzzing around, trying to speed up a vote on the government's short-term budget bill. After some debate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is pushing for a Friday morning showdown on the House's legislation to fund the government and *de*fund the health care law.
When Senator Ted Cruz said he was going to stand up to ObamaCare, who knew he meant literally? Twenty-one hours into the fourth longest speech in Senate history, Cruz's one-man crusade finally came to an end -- the victim of age-old Senate procedure. While he might not succeed in keeping Harry Reid from amending the continuing resolution to include ObamaCare funds, he *has* succeeded in bringing international attention to one of the worst legislative catastrophes in American politics: ObamaCare.
Sportscaster Craig James is used to being on the sidelines for games. But he's not going to stay there when it comes to his First Amendment rights. For the first time since his shocking ouster at Fox Sports, the former NFL standout spoke publicly about the story everyone should be talking about. In [an exclusive](http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2013/09/23/Craig-Jones-Fox-Sports-gay-marriage) with Breitbart News, the former broadcaster couldn't believe that his views on marriage -- which he never once expressed on air -- would disqualify him from breaking down football plays -- or any other job.
There may be a chill in the air -- but there's plenty of heat on Capitol Hill. Down to seven days of government cash flow, members of both parties woke up this week in a budget pressure cooker that's bringing Congress to the brink -- again. Republicans argue that the House's continuing resolution (CR), a political hot potato that landed in the Senate's lap last Friday, would force the one shutdown most people can agree on: ObamaCare's. As part of the bargain, conservatives are offering to float the government for three months at a cool $986 billion. "Our message to the United States Senate is real simple," said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "The American people don't want the government shut down, and they don't want ObamaCare."
If you tuned into C-SPAN last week and mistook it for the Soap Opera Network, you're not alone. Friday morning, the ObamaCare-budget drama took another twist, as House conservatives accurately diagnosed one of the major problems facing America: ObamaCare dollars in the federal funding stream. With the help of two Democrats (Reps. Mike McIntyre and Jim Matheson), 230 members kept their promise to play hardball on a health care policy that could be the downfall of American society. After an hour of debate, representatives moved to pass a $986.3 billion short-term budget that keeps the lights on in Washington and fully funds the government through December 15. What it won't do is devote a single cent to ObamaCare -- ever.
It was just 52 seconds, but what happened on the morning of August 15, 2012 changed FRC forever. Were it not for an ordinary man showing extraordinary courage, an activist bent on massacring an office of innocent people might have succeeded in silencing dozens of the FRC team -- forever. Today, that man, Floyd Lee Corkins II, was held accountable in a court of law for his premeditated act of violence. As prosecutors pointed out, this was no ordinary attack -- but an act intended to intimidate and bully an organization that represents millions of pro-marriage Americans. While rows of his intended targets looked on, the man who methodically planned to take FRC lives was sentenced to 25 years in prison for [three felony counts](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323808204579085570850963240.html), including the first-ever domestic terrorism conviction in the nation's capital.
The House wasn't planning to be in session next week, but after yesterday's announcement, it's a good thing they've changed their minds. Members will need all the time they can get to launch the most aggressive strike against ObamaCare yet. To the cheers of conservative activists everywhere, Republican members of the House emerged from a closed-door meeting with the news everyone was waiting for: the GOP is ready to fight.
If there's an upside to the President's Syrian debacle, it's that the administration's latest incompetence helped take the spotlight off of the White House's other spectacular failure: Benghazi. While the President was busy drawing his "red line," the first anniversary of the Libyan attack came and went without so much as a formal State Department ceremony for the four Americans brutally killed. At State's headquarters in Washington, a couple dozen staffers gathered to remember the victims in a makeshift memorial service that [didn't include](http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/09/state-department-staffers-benghazi-anniversary.php) Secretaries John Kerry or Hillary Clinton. Together staffers paid tribute to the men who would still be alive today were it not for serious failures on the administration's part. And one year later, Americans are no closer to understanding the reasons for the security lapses than they were on that tragic night. All signs point to senior State officials, who worked for Hillary Clinton and knew the embassy was vulnerable, but continued to downgrade security assets when the threat levels were highest.
Just because some Americans don't have health insurance doesn't mean they want President Obama's! New polling suggests that ObamaCare isn't exactly gaining fans -- even among the people it was designed to help. Regardless of the White House's $700 million PR blitz, time isn't dulling the disgust most Americans feel toward the President's signature policy.
The federal government already takes advantage of taxpayers' money. The last thing it should do is stand by while fellow Americans do the same. Yesterday, Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) took the first step in cracking down on the abuse that's bleeding into the health care law months before the policy even takes effect! Under ObamaCare, Americans can apply for direct health care subsidies -- if they are in a certain income bracket. Earlier in the summer, Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it wouldn't be setting up a system to verify those claims until late in 2015. In the meantime, anyone could apply for a health care subsidy and lie about his income just to get the federal benefits. It has been estimated that fraudulent applications could total tens of [billions of dollars](http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130913/NEWS02/309130130).
House members have already voted 40 times to repeal, defund, or change ObamaCare -- but conservatives are fighting to make it 41. That's the vote Republicans are banking on to bring the law to a screeching halt, if they can persuade leadership to get behind the grassroots plan. So far, so good, say members, who celebrated when the GOP leadership pulled their bill before it hit the House floor.
In the 12 years since 9/11, an entire generation of Americans has grown up in the shadows of towers that no longer stand. These are the children who experienced the tragedy through pictures -- the Statue of Liberty wreathed in smoke -- and stories, of heroes racing into collapsing buildings to save people they'd never met. In their textbooks are photographs of the giant flag unfurling over the Pentagon, and on their computers the video of a President standing on rubble, vowing to help the men responsible meet their Maker.
As a former quarterback, Craig James isn't used to being on the defensive. But unfortunately, that's exactly where Fox Sports is putting him in a story that should rock the football world. The retired Pro-Bowler became the latest face of the war on religious liberty, when -- after one day on the job -- Fox Sports gave James the boot for his conservative views on marriage. And here's the kicker: he made the comments, not at the sports desk, but during last year's Senate campaign!
The military can order its troops to do a lot of things -- but insisting they hold a certain worldview is not one of them. Unfortunately for Senior Master Sergeant Phillip Monk, his commanding officer never got that memo. Now, after a clash of opinions on marriage, the lesbian major is on a personal mission to destroy Monk's career.
President Obama may want to use force in Syria, but the kind of intervention Christians want is material -- not military. According to organizations on the ground of the war-torn country, the need for humanitarian help is great. Rosangela Jarjour, just one of many in the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches, pleaded with the West to help ease the nation's suffering -- not ratchet up the conflict.
No one likes to see a business close its doors -- unless that business is an abortion clinic! In states across America, pro-lifers have been all too happy to shutter facilities bent on misleading women and taking innocent lives. And that's no small number, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Since 2011, 58 of America's abortion clinics -- almost *one in 10* -- have either pulled the plug on their abortion services or folded altogether.
